More dusty Newton prototypes have emerged from the archives as everyone's busy drycleaning their favorite black turtlenecks in preparation of Apple's tablet announcement. The Bic and Cadillac hit the FCC but never quite made it to shelves, apparently.

The various photos were uploaded to Flickr by users Sonnyhung and Jimabeles, who says that he saw the prototypes at a "mobile computing development group" at Coke (no idea if he means Coca-Cola, or another company), saying that:

"Apple was more or less searching for a reason to build the tablet and never did find a market. I have no idea how many exist. I only know of one other and it is in a computer museum in California."

Jimabeles claims the Bic had two PCMIA card slots, a retractable I/O door, removable battery, infrared, microphone and speaker, along with an ARM 610 20MHz processor. It never made it past the FCC doors, but as the tablet world is busy undergoing some major changes, it's fascinating to look back at the models that Apple didn't actually launch. [Jimabeles Flickr and Sonnyhung Flickr via NowhereElse]